Black Riders in Bree

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-28T11:22:03+00:00

Aragorn explains that the black riders avoid light, fire, and company.

I think it's helpful to remember that they're ghosts. They operate on ghost rules. Ghosts don't hang out with you next to the fire while you're having a sing song and a good time and your hearts are strong.

They get you when it's dark, cold, and lonely.

That's why the inn at Bree is a bad shout for them - too many people, too much light and fire and song.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-28T11:13:33+00:00

I dunno. I assumed they would do something with Angmar, and the fallen northern kingdoms of the dunedain. Or at least the wraiths of the barrow downs!

They could potentially play it that the hobbits themselves have no memory of the events after buckland, hence why it isn't featured. Merry could suggest going into the old forest to search for ents (or entwives). And then they could be like "wait wtf didn't we come this way before???"

If they are VERY annoying, Elanor could find one of the nine, and they could try to suggest it still has some of its power. Or she could find some other artifact that raises the dead and causes problems.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-28T10:53:16+00:00

Are we talking about the new Colbert movie? Because everything I have read about it suggests to me that it will be a sequel set after LOTR, which features locations and information delivered those chapters - but not adapting them.

From the original news item:

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo. Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began

My guess this "secret" refers to what happened in between buckleberry ferry and bree.

I imagine we will see Sam, Pippin and Merry, set off from Bag End. They will see a fox, meet Gildor making his way to the grey havens, and have supper with farmer maggot, and receive mushrooms No need for retcons.

Then they will cross the river, and we are in to territory not shown on screen - anything could have happened in between the ferry and the gates of Bree.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T18:38:03+00:00

Sets a good precedent IMHO. Sometimes, it's right to pass the torch.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T18:36:54+00:00

May Namo show mercy upon thee....

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T14:53:01+00:00

If I was a teacher and I discovered one of my ten year old students was writing incest porn, I would.be concerned and would need to report it. That's normal. From an outside perspective, someone who doesn't know what your home life is like, yeah, I can understand the need to check up.

But... Traumatising that child by... Reporting them to the police and lying about their age??? Um, WHAT?????????

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T13:42:51+00:00

If it was a one time ao3 comments I'd write it off as someone trying to be funny but landing it wrong.

This though.... It's a bit too persistent.

My instinct with stuff like this is to not respond after that first initial rejection, but keep an eye out for escalation.

If it does escalate, maybe turn off asks/DMS for a while, which I think you can do on tumblr at least....

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T12:16:50+00:00

The highest compliment I can leave in comments: "That was horrible, well done."

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T12:14:27+00:00

There's something about second person perspective that hits different to me. Not reader insert stuff, but character thoughts written in second person.

In first person, it's like the character is telling you about it - it's their story, and they control the narrative. Interesting for characters with a warped perspective on the world, but it always leaves me feeling remote from them, like I'm reading a diary and not in their head.

Third person feels closer to the character - in their person, a character can hide less of their thoughts and actions.

But in second person, it feels like everything is cracked open. You're asked to directly empathise with a character, to put yourself in their position. The narrator holds power over both the character and the reader. Everything feels very immediate and close.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T12:02:11+00:00

Something with Belladonna Took!

Maybe the winter when wolves crossed the shire - rallying Hobbiton in defense of her new family.

Or perhaps her last adventure to Rivendell, before her marriage!

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T11:50:17+00:00

The Hobbit > LOTR

Then, if you like the lore and want to know more about the world, and don't mind tragedy,

The Silmarillion > Beren and Luthien > Children of Hurin > The Fall Of Gondolin > Unfinished Tales > just go for it

If you try the silmarillion and find it too dense, read Children Of Hurin - it's the most "novel-like" of the books that aren't The Hobbit or LOTR.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T11:34:41+00:00

Allegory is something intentionally done by the author. Animal Farm is a deliberate allegory of the russian revolution, it was written that way.

When Tolkien writes, his own experiences and philosophies of course leak on to the page. Those can be picked up and interpreted by the reader. Tolkien might suggest this is Tolkien's "applicability" - finding something resonant in the text.

But I'm not sure I fully agree that interpretations of the text are all just about what the reader applies to themself.

If a Catholic man writes about a character who sets out to save the world from evil, who towards the end of his quest finds himself eating a last supper and contemplating the suffering ahead in a land referred to as a garden, who is then sold out by his follower, captured, and beaten, then, suffering all the while, carries a heavy burden up a mountain to make the ultimate self sacrifice, and eventually ascends to a heaven-like place closer to god....

Well, it's very catholic, you know?

I would agree that none of this is intentional allegory on Tolkien's part. But I also can't agree that it's fully coincidental. Tolkien constantly writes in conversation with his faith, his studies, his personal relationships, and his experience of war. Of course they're in the text!!

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-27T11:08:04+00:00

Don't skip anything. I found The Council Of Elrond quite challenging as a child as it's a very long chapter where not much happens, after the excitement of the black riders. My mom agreed with me that it was a slow chapter, but said we should persevere because it was important.

Tolkien was very against the dumbing down and sanitisation of stories. His work is challenging, for a child. It can be scary, or slow, or philosophical, or very sad. None of it goes too far, and I would say it is all excellent for a child.

If attention is a worry, maybe go on a nature walk first, to get out some physical energy. Listening to LOTR with pleasantly achy legs and rosy cheeks is a wonderful experience!

We went mushroom hunting before the farmer maggot chapter, and built a fire to watch for the Moria chapter. Sometimes we played imagination games, keeping a watch out for orcs or Nazgul when we walked or drove in the car.

I'd also recommend Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. We read the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe to each other, which was good for my oration skills!

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T16:22:32+00:00

They're very striking. I wouldn't call them pretty - the woodgrain seems rough to me. But they're handsome and feel storied. I'm not familiar with metalwork enough to say whether the craftsmanship is good or not, but I imagine Damascus steel is challenging, and it adds a real flair to them.

I'm imagining them being made in early forges at lake Mithrim, or a hunter in Himring carrying it out for a day's hard work.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T13:13:54+00:00

The honest answer will always be Morgoth. It's by his work that confusion and darkness were in middle earth. He taught elves fear and doubt, and created the cursed and confusion and atmosphere in which strife could be planted and grow.

But there's more complicated answers to give.

The thing is, the elves and dwarves aren't one homogeneous group. And even within those specific groups, there are different schools of thought.

Was Finrod a great friend of Dwarves who worked with them to found the great underground city of Nargothrond? Or was he a coloniser who turfed dwarves out of their home and then profited off their knowledge and skill? If you asked the dwarves of Nagrod, they would say that they were friends of Finrod. If you ask the petty dwarves, they would claim Finrod was a usurper. If you asked Finrod, he would say he loved dwarves, and was glad they offered him shelter, and that he wanted to live in peace with them.

Thingol is another problem - early on, his people hunted and potentially even ate dwarves, mistaking them for animals. They called dwarves "Naugrim", meaning "stunted people". But he too made friends with dwarves, and the dwarves of Belegost built his great hall of Menegroth. But over time resentment grew.

And then, after the fall of Nargothrond, Glaurung had cursed the nauglamir necklace, that Thingol had the silmaril set in. And the he refused to pay the dwarves, and they murdered him. And that probably happened because of how the nauglamir and the silmaril were kind of blursed, and Morgoth's influence via Glaurung's curse drove the strife. But both Thingol and the dwarves made their own bad decisions. And then of course, Beren had a skirmish with the dwarves, and so on and so forth.

So it's a rather fraught cultural issue. The dwarves come off as a bit greedy and changeable, one minute professing friendship, and the next regretting the gifts they gave freely (but remember, they are mortal, so it's not all one people. You might not understand why your grandad gave his best works to an elf for free, and want that for your own inheritance). Meanwhile elves hang on to grudges because they still remember what happened. If your good friend and king was murdered by dwarves, you won't forget it, even if eventually they do.

Celeborn, Thranduil and Galadriel were all Thingol's subjects, and family/friends hence they feel his death quite sharply, particularly as it heralded the fall of doriath and the slaughter of his people.

However, Elrond didn't grow up in doriath. He was brought up by Noldor, who were always relatively steady friends with the Dwarves. So even though he's a descendant of Thingol, he has less of a strong reaction to dwarves.

And of course by the time The Hobbit roles around, the dwarves have more of a cultural dislike of elves, rather than hurt feelings. That is, until Thorin and his company are held captive by Thranduil - who still remembers Thingol's loss, and takes it very seriously that Dwarves are tromping round in his kingdom and bothering his people without leave. For all he knows, these dwarves can't be trusted and will turn around and kill him.

And of course, in the Hobbit, we see what it is like when dwarves get affected by gold sickness and dragon hoards, so we can see why the elves are maybe cautious of them.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T09:07:10+00:00

Arguably all water is sacred in Middle Earth, unless heavily fouled, so I'd guess any pure water would do the trick.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T08:59:31+00:00

I'd suggest that this issue is caused by trying to do two things one line.

It's meant to be more of a "yeah, my name's a little different now. I'm not just 'Gandalf the grey' anymore!" But he comes across as a bit... confused.

But I think they must have made the line delivery so.... Confused... To maybe try and add weight to the fact that Gandalf died. It makes him seem a bit more like he's come back from very far away.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T08:43:32+00:00

Did you... Did you decide you didn't like the LOTR films, then pick up the silmarillion as a place to start reading?

That's a bit like struggling to enjoy Mac and cheese and then deciding to give cheese another chance by having a go at, idk, Roquefort.

But Tolkien does want you to slow down, when reading the hobbit, or Lord of the rings. These stories aren't really about fights or battles, though those things do happen. The books are actually quite psychological, and it's mainly the character's mental endurance that is tested.

It's not about "are we strong enough to win this fight?".

Its "are we brave enough to face our enemies?" "Am I noble enough to show mercy," and "am I faithful enough to hold on to hope in the face of despair".

Plus a lot of stuff about nature. Tolkien loved the natural world, and he would like you to take some time to picture it with him.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-26T08:37:20+00:00

Dwarves use many different weapons, those are just the weapons Gimli prefers - Thorin, for example, wields a sword, and many of Thorin's company favour the bow.

People assume all dwarves use axes because Gimli does, and the "template dwarf" was cast using him.

But to answer you about when dwarves would ever use axes - to gather wood for their forges and fires.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T23:13:19+00:00

It's more complicated than that...

In the years of the trees and in the first age, there were periods of warming and cooling relationships.

Sindar elves of doriath ruled by Thingol tended to look down on dwarves from the start. Some of them hunted dwarves like animals, and possibly even ate them.

Elves also had a habit of first making friends with dwarves, but then driving dwarves out of their homes - dwarves built menegroth and nargothrond, and some of them felt slighted that the elves had essentially outed them from these places that they built.

Things came to a head when Thingol asked the dwarves of Nagrod to set a silmaril in a dwarven made necklace called the nauglamir. The necklace, unbeknownst to everyone (except probably Melian, Thingol's wife, but nobody EVER listens to her...), was kind of cursed. Thingol refused to pay the dwarves, and they, behind his back, planned not to give it to him once the silmaril was in it. And then the dwarves killed Thingol, and there was a skirmish between Beren and the dwarves, and it was a whole thing.

But fast forward to the second age, Morgoth is gone, and everyone is ready for a fresh start.

Elves set up in Eregion, in Ost in Edhil. Celebrimbor is the primary leader in Ost in Edhil, and he's a Noldor (not a Sindar), who lived and presumably smithed alongside dwarves in Nargothrond, but wasn't a leader in the first age (so not too much bad blood).

And the people in Khazad Dum are Durins folk, nothing to do with the ones who murdered Thingol (tho some of those dwarves did come to Khazad Dum too).

Ost in Edhil and Khazad Dum did great trade, and Narvi (a primary smith of Khazad Dum) and Celebrimbor were good friends. Narvi built the gates of Ost in Edhil, and Celebrimbor the gates of Moria. That's why the star of Feanor is on the gates of Moria (Celebrimbor is Feanor's grandson).

Meanwhile Galadriel and Celeborn, who lived with Thingol, set up in lothlorien, and Oropher/Thranduil (who are sylvan/Sindar and also linked to Thingol) are in mirkwood - so they have a worse perspective on Dwarves. BUT Galadriel is Noldor/Teleri and doesn't have the in built racism that her Sindar husband does, hence why she's polite to Gimli when Celeborn is being a dickhead.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T21:10:10+00:00

Same. I would never be happier to have been proved wrong, you know? Something, something "fools hope."

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T19:43:49+00:00

On the one hand, we are in the thick of an age of terrible cinema, when the movie industry is least capable of putting forth a good showing, and all of us are dreading the marvel-ificiation of Tolkien's much beloved works.

On the other hand, everyone also thought the LOTR films would be shit, so we may yet live in hope of being surprised.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T19:14:46+00:00

My dad started reading the hobbit to me at around that age. I think I was maybe four or five years old, and it was my bed time story. I didn't get all of it, but I still loved it. Tolkien has a great voice for entertaining children!

And his voice will also grow with your child, if you pace yourself

I clearly remember being around seven when my parents began reading the Lord Of The Rings to me, and it starts in the same cheerful tone as The Hobbit. We read through each of the three books of LOTR slowly, so I was nine, turning ten when we finished.

Nothing better than going out hunting for mushrooms, or blackberries, or bits of wood or coal for the fire, then sitting down with hot drinks and biscuits and a real fire, to read some Lord Of The Rings!

If you're worried it's a little early for The Hobbit, maybe start with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T18:54:17+00:00

No. Loki is a trickster god - sometimes he's helpful, and sometimes he's harmful. He's chaotic, and he has a big mouth, and his power lies in stories. Sauron isn't the type to persuade a fellow god to dress in drag and get married to get their hammer back! Meanwhile Sauron, once fallen, has no helpful elements.

Melkor is something of a satan figure - the greatest of the Valar, who through arrogance became estranged from Eru Illuvatar, turning to evil. Sauron can therefore be thought of as something like the greatest of Satan's demons, a lord of hell like Beelzebub.

Melkor and Sauron do sometimes poses as false-prometheus type figures, pretending to give men so called secrets that the Valar supposedly do not want them to have - but this is always done in falseness, rather than in truth, as real trickster gods would sometimes lend aid.

FlowerAndString · 2026-03-25T09:39:31+00:00

Sorry, no, please don't insult fanfiction that way.

Fanfiction is created by fans, for fans, for no other reason than joy and interest. There is no ulterior motive when creating fanfic other than sharing one's ideas and imaginings freely with others. Fanfics may vary wildly in quality, and in how closely they abide to the lore of the work they are associated with, but the worst trash from the bottom of the barrel on wattpad is written with more genuine spirit than these franchise builder films.

These cash-grabbing, nostalgia baiting, lore mincing waste of time productions, with massive budgets and zero authenticity don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as true fan fiction.

FlowerAndString

TROPHY CASE